Jacob Fred History by Jon Haring
From: jon haring
Date: Mon Feb 3, 2003 2:07 pm
Subject: un edited thought stream history...coments?
Ok, I don't know really how to write this, so its just gonna come out random. Most of the years I'm writing about have fused into a colorful blob in my memory. For the most part the time line should be correct. A few things might get transposed, hopefully not to badly. Also, I know a lot more than I feel I have a right to tell. I'm not out to piss off my friends. Every member of the band and friend and fan I'm sure has a different take on some of the shit that happened. This is just my take. If someone else wants to air another point of veiw, go for it. Lots of talented people came up with the boys and I hope Greg, or Jeff, or Josh puts pen to paper as well.
Also, I don't know some of the guys as well as others. I don't claim best fiends with any of them. I know a couple pretty damn well. But I have to admit I've always been more of a fan that has grown into a friend. Sean Layton I knew for a couple of years before Fred formed. We met when he was backing Glass House at their 'round the town bar gigs. I was a working photojournalist at the time and always had my gear. I probably burned fifty, sixty rolls of film on a two-bit cover band with a cute lead singer. She and Sean had the chops. Sean and I were about the same age and we would catch beers between sets and after the show. I'd give him shots of him playing, or him with his crazy girlfriend. His brother Dillon and I got to know each other pretty well. He and I have often sat together at shows through the years. Jenny (the singer) will appear later in the saga. The cute singer dated the cute bass palyer, Reed, for a while.
All this was happening around '92 early '93, I guess. Years don't mean a lot to me so I hope I get most of them straight. Later in '93 my best friend had read where there was gonna be jazz at the local coffeehouse, Gold Coast. He and I were young and tragicly hip. We didn't fit in with the jocks or preps or cowboys in Tulsa and were desperate for something cool. I liked big band, but I had yet to hear Bird or Train, or Miles. We went 'cause jazz is supposed to be cool and there was nothing else to do. The band, Pimp Cocktail, eventually formed part of Jacob Fred. I don't remember for sure the line up. I remember Dove (he was still Dave then) and Leland on bone. There may have been others in Cocktail that didn't go on to Fred. I don't remember. Layton was there. He clued me into another jazz night. I went. That night was Fred's first show. Jacob Fred turned me onto jazz. They were all music students at the time. Reed was still in high school. They played a lot of standards. But from the beginning it sounded different. When I heard the originals of some of the tunes later I was amazed. Fred provided a platform for each musician in the group to expiriment with different styes of music. They used improvised jazz as the glue to hold the fucked up montage together. Someone was saying last weekend in Portland, one of the band, that if Jacob Fred had sat down to become a band it never would have worked out. But it started as an ensemble jam that was never meant to be anything. It wasn't supposed to last. Leland told me one time that it was Vernan Howard, a music proffessor from the University of Tulsa, that told his class they should all jam together sometime just to see what would come of it. Also, the story goes, that this same class voted on the name for the band when the started gigging. Now, I don't know who was in the class, whether it was just the Fred members or not. But it makes a good story. Oh, the name, Jacob Fred was an alias used by haas for prank calls and as a CB handle. The Jazz Odyssey is strait out of Spinal Tap. We can't to a thirty minute improvised jazz tune to a rock and roll stadium crowd!?.This next song is called Jazz Odyssey. It kinda fits.
The early shows bounced between Gold Coast and the Eclipse Coffee House. It was clear that the Eclipse was the perferred venue. The Eclipse Coffee house was the cash generating engine for a man named Kalid (K.) Rahal. He likes to sue people, so you guys don't get to hear all the fun stuff. But let's just say he was a colorful personality around town. I never saw coffee at the Eclipse either, just crappy 3.2% alcohol beer and wine coolers. On the south wall was a huge technocolored mural of Starry Night by Van Gough. The bathrooms had an Alice in Wonderland theme done up in outdoor latex paint. Designed to stay, I bet. There were two pool tables, a couple of ratty couches, bunches of bar tables with mismatched chairs and an upright piano on stage I rarely saw anyone play. It was a dump, a shit hole, and a dive. Man, it was heaven.
To a weird kid from the south side sports bars and malls the Eclipse opened my eyes to the other side. No beer posters with chicks, no crappy jukebox filled with rocks greatest hits. I had found a place to explore the crazier side of my soul and Fred had as well. We were all young and it was all new to us. I taught myself to dance there. Girls learned how to be sultry there. (no ac) We smoked dope in the bathrooms and got cheap beer for underaged girls. (I may need to clarify that. I was 22, the girls were 19, 20. Its not like I was an old fart picking up on young tarts. That came later.) I saw some crazy shows at the Eclipse: BillyGoat, Dead Clown, Annaspells Overalls. K. let anything go. I saw punk for the first time, and jazz. I heard garage bands and rock bands and open mic poetry. Anything that might bring in a crowd K. would bring back. Fred brought crowds. They were almost the house band for a time. And they rocked da house.
Some of the early Fred shows were expiriments in complex noise. The original line up had eight completely different individuals all playing different styles if music to the same tune. It was like different matrials poured into the same mold. I can say I got into hip-hop, funk, be-bop, ska, latin jams, reggae all because they came off the stage when Fred played. Anything the boys thought they could put in a tune they did. Even to the point of Haas going nuts on two up ended 50 gallon oil drums. He beat on them with felt mallets while shirtless and wearing swim goggles. It was high energy. The girls in the crowd chanted "go Rod" and "Rod the Bod" when McKee grandstanded on tenor. Dove dressed and played like Prince; Reed copied licks from Jaco and the family man Barret. Just three hours of mass histeria, and then we all went home.
Fred shows were like Halloween every weekend. People dressed for the party. Dove got into fuzzy clothing for a while. Leland went disco. I'd wear anything from a kilt to a tux, to a pasely skirt. I think Haas would've played naked. He may have. We were like birds and our plumage. Fred shows gave us a great place to be silly and weird and fun with no critisism from the right wing masses in Tulsa.
Let's talk about Tulsa right know and give you guys some idea of where Jacob Fred was born. Tulsa in the late eighties and early nineties had a rather diverse population. Over all it was a nice and safe town, kinda like a nerf city. Nothing really every happened. We made our own fun. The culture, although leaning towards the right, had much in common with the United States as a whole. The oil business brought people from all over. Tulsa's a nice palce so they stayed to raise their families. This affected the culture and the music we heard. The local festivals had been bringing a world of music to town for decades. You can still find members of the Gap Band and Eric Clapton's bands gigging around town. Mayfest, Blue Grass Festival, Symphony at Sunset all soaked into us as kids. Steve Pyor liven upped the local blues scene. Than in the mid eighties two things happened that steared the couse for Tulsa's youth. We got cable. MTV, baby. And Tim Baraza created Reggae Fest- a noon to midnight festival that was free. MTV opened our eyes to every style of music from the Police to Prince to Blondie to Devo. Wow! I still remember wanting one of the DEVO hats in elementary school. I didn't understand it but I knew I liked it.
When Fred started playing show the jumped all over the musical spetrum like kids on ridalin in a toy store. "Wow! Look at this." "See, see, see I can do this." "That's cool, can you do it again?" They reminded me of moutian bikers racing down a hill in a playfull race. They weren't sure where the trail went but they were pretty sure they could handle the percent grade. They all had the same understanding of music and worked to provide a platform for each member to process and expiriment with the sounds that drifted in. Every one liked a bunch of different types of music and each had his favorites. Like kids on different colored skateboards going in the same direction. And like epicurians seeking the next delicascy they took a bite from from everything.
I'm sure that events, like this, influenced bands of my generation all over the country. And I hear talk and have read the words crediting MMW with this musical upheaval. Yes, we are all MMW fans. But to say that MMW created the pattern for the "current jazz" to my thinkin' is a bit much. I'm not saying that MMW didn't have an influence on today's music, but it was later in the coure of the meal, after the entrée. [Dessert is a long way off.] As a generation we were never limited, by society as a whole, at least, from exploring our poliglot culture. Herritage, cultural festivals, t.v., opened our eyes. And I think that for every copy of "Shackman" on the groove/jam circuit, you'll find copies of Bitche's Brew, or Gang Starr, or Ornette Coleman. I think the cultural gate just opened sooner on the Atlantic coast than it did in Tulsa, or New Oleans, or Seattle. I've known members of Fred since '92 and as a layman I didn't first hear MMW until '95 or '96. We listened to Bird or the Beasty Boys or Miles. Hell, even after MMW came on the scene, I still heard more Coltrain than MMW.
The first change in the Jacob Fred line up occurred when Rod Mackee lef the band. It was just after the pressing of the first album 'Live at the Lincoln Continental.' Rod was a hard bop blower who added a swing direction to the band. (Keep in mind these guys were like super bounce rubber balls in a warehouse full of CD's. The direction changed a lot.) Despite the on stage craziness underneith there lay superb orchastration. For a few weeks the horn line sounded off. Low end with Leland on bone, high end with Kyle on trumpet where a tenor used to tie the two together. Like any other organism the band adapted. Matt blew higher; Kyle blew lower. In my opionion it focred both players to use more of their range. They responded beautifully. Dove stepped up and carved himself a niche by playing funk in the middle ranges. The music smoothed out.
After a few years the newness wore off, but like a well made pair of jeans it became more comfortable. Fred had, quite by accident, developed a way to play all of the sytles of music we all (band and fans) loved to hear. Realizing the uniquness they set out to compose more songs that they could meld the varrying style into a cohesive flow. The combine musical training of the band provided skills and tools taylored to the task. The members wovve penciled tableture into many carpets of songs. Each rug differing in color and texture from the last, but all well made. Though their second album, "Live in Tokyo', contained moments of pure silliness it also show cased great talent and hardwork. Ironically, the joke name, "Live in Tokyo' (recorded at the Eclipse) may have duped a few booking agents into takinga chance on an unknown band. Thus, Fred soon after its release played with Galactic in New York and brought MMW to a crappy dance club in Tulsa, the Ikon.
About this time the band began shooting out to weekend gigs in Chicago or Austin. Anywhere they thought they could get to in a weekend. They also started doing the Summer figure eight tour of the country. The guys would do anything to raise money to go on these trips. They arranged the 500 family garage sale at Dove's house. I showed up in a kilt and war paint. I scared off some grandma looking types out for the weekend garage sale bargains. I left. I bought some overalls.
Sometime around the MMW show was the first JFJO Pimp of the Year Contest. The first Pimp of the Year won his title on stage at the Eclipse. When the final two contestants were asked to drop their drawers the winner was wearing pearly pink panties, or some such. I wasn't there. I was dating a girl at the time that hated Jacob Fred (why? I don't really know. ) I made it to other Pimp of the Year contests and won the title in '97. [That's a fun little side note. This girl Kary and I decided to put up a female pimp and an all male crew as the gimmick for winning. We recruited a couple of other co-workers and this kid named Peter Parago. Ok, night of the show, we're at the Ikon. I'm all tricked out as Senior Amor- white bell bottoms, navy and maroon polyester cowboy coat, shirt open in male cleavage, Vaseline in my hair. Kary is sporting this purple belled jump suit. Kary also had business cards made "Mama K's High Priced Bitches." Fred plays, we promoted. (Actually, we drink and pass put the cards. Fred keeps the spirits high. Peter walks in. All kinds of Pimped out. The boy had broken posse and had set himself up as a rival to Mama K. Fred stopped and Leland called the Players to the stage. I was really drunk. I don't know exactly what went on but basically while Petey was tryan' to convince the crowd he was the Pimp. I grabbed the mike and proceeded to slam the boy down in the name of my pimp Mama K. The crowd loved it. I won the contest for Mama K. I lost that cool coat somewhere. Damn.]
